Ah, New Orleans—a mecca for college spring-breakers, bachelor and bachelorette partiers, and middle-aged not-so-crazies hoping to recapture the wild abandon of their youth.
I know the allure of America’s original Sin City more than most, having spent 27 years there.
But having that long acquaintance, I also know the pleasures New Orleans offers that don’t result in a three-day hangover. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. In my book, New Orleans is America’s most culturally significant city.
That culture rose organically from the sultry swamp surrounded by bayous, river, lake, and Gulf.
Fashioned by Spanish, French, Afro-Caribbean, and Anglo influences, New Orleans created its own cuisine and music, and adopted a zest for life that resulted in its motto, Laissez les Bon Temps Roulez.
The good times haven’t exactly rolled in New Orleans over the past two decades. The twin blows of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the COVID pandemic in 2020 sent this tourism-dependent city into a tailspin.
But New Orleans is nothing if not resilient. From the French Quarter and the Faubourg Marigny to Mid-City to the Garden and Warehouse Districts, it has rebounded with a vengeance and come back stronger than ever.
Ground zero for the new development is the Mississippi River waterfront, and leading the charge is the Audubon Nature Institute, which recently reopened the Audubon Aquarium and the Insectarium following a $41 million renovation.
Routinely voted one of the top 5 aquariums in America, the redesigned Audubon Aquarium is a feast for the senses.
Visitors can walk through a 450,000-gallon Gulf of Mexico exhibit; a lush Amazon rainforest; a Louisiana swamp (it’s good to see Tchomp, the rare white alligator, back in his domain), and an Arctic Penguin Encounter.
